


the merits of public indecency

by robbstarkswoman



Category: Sense8 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Diego is a little shit like usual, F/M, Fluff, Will pines like usual, everyone is happy, they all live in Chicago magically, they're not sensates, what even is this tbh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-27
Updated: 2015-06-27
Packaged: 2018-04-04 16:46:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,059
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4145190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/robbstarkswoman/pseuds/robbstarkswoman
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Who knew fishing a naked girl out of a fountain would turn out so well?</p><p>(or, Will meets Riley on the job and somehow she's everywhere he goes)</p>
            </blockquote>





	the merits of public indecency

**Author's Note:**

> Because I'm Will x Riley trash I had to write something else and so voila, weird AU where they're not sensates and life is as normal.  
> TBH I don't even know what this is but (hopefully) you enjoy!

 

Officer Will Gorski is having a pretty shitty evening, if he’s being honest with himself. He’s had to arrest two meth addicts for trying to burn down a corner store, had to talk to a hysterical mother because her son had gone missing and to top it off, has been given a shit ton of paperwork to do on a series of arrests he’s recently made.

So when he gets the call over the radio to go and sort someone out for public indecency, Will really doesn’t have the time.

It’s just going to be some old man who’s had a little bit too much to drink and so thought it’d be cool to go for a naked swim in the fountain downtown.

What he doesn’t expect to find is a woman about his age laughing hysterically up at the sky, twirling around and splashing something that only she can see. She’s either completely bonkers because that water must be _freezing_ – especially since it is 10 pm – or she’s on a really great high. Will decides it must be the latter when he manages to have a good look at her eyes as she hums contentedly and starts singing up at the stars.

And okay, she’s pretty attractive too – peroxide blonde hair, pale skin, thin, a wide smile and crinkly eyes. Will tries not to think about that particular detail as he leaves his vehicle and makes his way over to the fountain, waving away the onlookers with a ‘nothing to see here.’

But still, Will definitely has to force himself to stare at her face as he goes up to her, a towel clenched in one hand.

“Excuse me, ma’am,” he asks her, holding the towel out.

He knows she hears him because she looks over for a second before she’s back laughing and gazing around in wonder.

“Ma’am, I’m going to need you to hop out of the fountain now.” He tries again.

This time she just giggles and looks over her shoulder at him before she slowly, deliberately, lies down in the water and makes a starfish.

If she weren’t so endearing, Will would be pretty pissed right now. Instead, he’s just mildly amused.

“Come on, ma’am, or I will have to charge you.”

She hums and closes her eyes, a serene smile on her face.

Right. Will’s gonna have to go in.

He leaves the towel on the ground, hoists himself over the side and splashes down into the water, thankful he’s quite a bit taller than her when it just barely reaches his thighs.

“Fuck, it’s cold!” He yelps out, rolling his eyes at her laugh. Goddamn it’s actually freezing, how is she not catatonic from the cold?!

He reaches down and pulls her up out of the water until she’s standing, gripping her forearm so she can’t lie down again. She’s looking at him calmly, and dammit, he really needs to focus on being a professional and not focus on how her skin is reacting to the cold or the look in her eye as she presses herself a bit closer to him. It’s like he can feel every inch of her against him, but that’s probably just because she’s only a few inches away and he actually _can_ see every inch of her.

He needs to get her wrapped up and out, now.

“Out you hop.” He murmurs to her as he helps her over, picking the towel up from the ground and handing it over. He breathes a sigh of relief as she hurriedly wraps it around herself – the cold must be affecting the alcohol or whatever she has in her system because her eyes aren’t as hazy anymore and he swears she begins to blush.

Will just scratches the top of his head and tries not to shiver himself and shit, they’re his only clean pair of work pants too.

.

He ends up deciding not to charge her because as they reach the car she begins to blurt out apologies. She’s really embarrassed now, hiding under the towel and avoiding looking at him. It’s cute.

“Don’t worry, I’m not going to charge you, I’ll just give you a ride home.” He tells her as he opens the back door of his car.

He could let her sit up front, but that’s probably not very professional, and he needs to be professional.

“My friends dared me too and I was so drunk I didn’t think about it being a bad idea, I’m sorry.” She blurts out as she gingerly hops in.

Frankly, Will doesn’t really mind, but he doesn’t want her getting hypothermia either.

“Are you warm enough for now?” He asks, just as her teeth begin to chatter.

Evidently not.

“I’ll – I’ll be-e fine, when I get – g-g-get home.” She gasps out, trying to blow on her hands to warm them up. She’s still too wet though, it’s not going to do anything. He puts the heater in the car on as high as possible for the drive, checking in the rear-view mirror to make sure she’s not going blue.

He finds her apartment with no problem, and she races upstairs quickly after blurting out her thanks and giving him a quick wave as she goes. Will can’t help the smile that makes his way onto his face as he turns the car around, or the chuckle as she leans out of a window and yells her thanks again.

Diego isn’t going to believe this.

.

Honestly, after that he thinks he’s never going to see her again. Chicago isn’t exactly a small place, and he does shift work, so the odds of her doing something crazy while he’s working and while he’s available to respond to said something crazy is very slim.

Diego howls with laughter when Will tells him the story, notes how jealous he is that _of course_ Will fucking Gorski got to go to the one ‘normal’ public indecency call out.

Will shoves him and laughs as Diego spills his coffee over his paperwork.

It doesn’t stop Diego from telling the whole station about how Will got all flustered about the incident though.

.

It’s even worse when the new dog handler, Wolfgang, comes up to see him as he’s finishing a job and slyly mentions that the girl is actually his flatmate and that she’s been mortified about it since it happened.

Will really just wants the ground to swallow him up at this point – Wolfgang is terrifying at the best of the times, with his thick German accent and the way his dogs are absolutely lethal, and efficient, at getting the job done.

“I, uh, I hope she’s alright?” He asks Wolfgang, not liking the smirk present on his face.

“She’s fine.” He nods. “I find it entertaining that everyone is teasing you about it, you think she’s pretty, don’t you?”

“I, um, ah, Wolfgang man, look I was just doing my job, Diego’s the one making it bigger than it is.”

“Uh huh.” Wolfgang says, moving from his perch on Will’s desk.

As he reaches the doorway he turns around, “I can give you her number if you want.”

“ _No_ , Wolfgang.” Will manages to stress, just as he bangs his forehead down on his desk.

Diego is going to pay for this.

.

But then, two weeks later he sees her again.

He’s working night shift with Diego when they have to go to bar fight – apparently someone has also pulled a knife out – so they’re pretty frantic as they pull up.

The two guys are outside having a brawl, a pretty decent sized crowd surrounding the two. Luckily, there’s no knife, so they manage to de-tangle the two men relatively easily – relative being the operative word; Will gets two elbows to the face and a punch in his ribs, Diego gets kicked from flailing legs and a punch straight to the jaw. All in all, a solid days work.

They’ve finished talking to the two guys, sorting out the problem and issuing them both warnings when a girl comes flying out of nowhere, nearly running into Diego.

“Oh I’m sorry –” she starts before she’s looking over her shoulder and – oh.

Well, shit.

“You.” She blurts out.

She looks like a deer in headlights, her eyes wide and her body tense. It seems Wolfgang was right about her being mortified, if the look on her face is anything to go by.

Will can’t help it, he laughs.

“Hello, again.” He manages to get out, his eyes darting between Diego and the girl.

He’s gotta admit, he’s over the moon. She’s standing in front of him – clothed this time – and it’s just – wow. She’s even more beautiful than he remembers.

It doesn’t take Diego long to put the pieces together and then – “you’re the naked chick!”

Will’s best friend is _such_ a dickhead.

The girl just blushes and covers her eyes with her hand while nodding.

It’s actually supremely awkward, but Will loves it.

“I’ve been behaving myself though, that won’t happen again, I promise.” She says.

The thing is, Will really wouldn’t mind if it happened again. He hasn’t been able to get her out of his head since that night, hasn’t been able to stop imagining what it might be like to kiss those lips or touch her skin or –

He needs to stop thinking and focus.

“It’s fine.” He replies. “What are you doing here?”

“I’m the DJ here, actually.” Will can detect some sort of accent too – it’s faint, but decidedly not American, and he’s not sure why he didn’t pick it up earlier. Maybe she’s German like Wolfgang, but no, it doesn’t sound German.

“Anyway, this is my break and I really wanted a cigarette so I should go.” She adds, gesturing over her shoulder and offering a small smile.

Will can’t help but smile back, watching her go with a sway to her hips. She puts on some blue headphones and doesn’t look back, but he can see her hands tapping out some sort of beat to whatever she’s listening too.

“You didn’t tell me she was so _hot_.” Diego slaps him on the back, gripping his shoulder and letting out a low whistle.

Will feels something stir in his chest – possession? – but he pushes it down. He doesn’t even know her, he has no rights to her just because he’s met her once. She’s her own person.

“Get in the car, Morales.” He replies, turning away from her and resolving to put her out of his mind.

.

It becomes a problem though, when he pulls her over for failing to have working tail lights.

He can tell when she sees him walking up to her car too, because her mouth moves to form the words ‘you have got to be kidding me’ as she looks over to the passenger. Will can’t believe it either.

“Hello, again.” He says good-naturedly after she’s wound down her window.

“Oh, hi Will!” Her passenger says, ducking her head down and waving. It’s Kala, Wolfgang’s decidedly much better half. She comes into work sometimes to bring Wolfgang lunch when he has paperwork, and she always seems to pop in to get a tea as Will’s getting himself a coffee. Will can’t understand how she’s with Wolfgang to be honest, they seem like such polar opposites.

“Kala! Hey, how are you?” He asks her, bending down so he can actually see into the car.

“Oh, I’m good. What seems to be the problem here?” Kala replies. She looks very concerned.

But she’s not as concerned as the driver seems to be. She’s wringing her hands and trying not to look directly at Will’s face but still trying to be polite and look in his direction.

“Ma’am, your tail lights aren’t working, so I thought I’d check your warrant. I could see your head lights were working, but you really need to get the tails fixed as soon as possible, it’s too dangerous to be driving around at night with them like that.”

She nods. “I’m sorry about that, I’ll take it in tomorrow and get it looked at.”

She still can’t look at him, but Will is honestly too far gone at this point to mind. He can’t tear his eyes away from her in fact, and he studies her eagerly because who knows when he’ll next see her.

Kala giggles.

“Is that all, Will?”

He knows he should be dealing with the situation more, but she looks so anxious Will is sure she’ll get it fixed straight away.

“Okay, well I’m going to give you the number of a guy who does a pretty good deal and can fix your car up.” He says, pulling out his phone and scrolling through until he finds the number.

“His name’s Capheus and he’s great.” He adds as he jots the number down on his notepad.

Both of the girls laugh at that.

“Oh, we live with Capheus, that’s who I was going to ask for help!” The girl says, finally looking up at Will and meeting his eyes. She’s smiling brightly for once and it’s all he can do to memorize the swell of her cheeks and her dimple, mapping the curve of her lips against her teeth and the way her eyes shine under the street lights.

As they stare at each other, Kala muses, “What a small world.”

“Yeah.” He murmurs quietly, grinning as the girl ducks her head and tucks an errant strand of hair behind her head.

.

It’s definitely a complete coincidence that he makes his way back to the bar she said she worked at on his next night off – not intentional at all. Besides, he didn’t even choose the bar – his friends Nomi and Lito did. (Okay, maybe he mentioned it, and maybe he said he really wanted to go there, but it’s definitely not because of her, _no way_ , he just really happens to like that bar.)

He holds his breath as they enter, because what if she’s not there – but then again, what if she is.

Lito slaps him on the back and goes to the bar to order them some drinks. Nomi is dragged off by her girlfriend Amanita onto the dancefloor straight away.

They’re actually playing some really good music.

He makes his way over to Lito and sits down on a bar stool with a sigh.

“Is she here?” Lito asks him.

Wait, what.

“Sorry?”

Lito just chuckles. “You were adamant we came to this bar, so there must be someone here you want to see, and my money is on the girl you found swimming naked in the fountain.”

Dammit, he’d forgotten he’d told them all about his encounters with her over their weekly movie nights.

He takes a swig of his beer and looks around. He can’t see her, he can only see silhouettes of sweaty couples and newly turned 21 year olds dancing. No sign of his mysterious girl at all.

Lito notices the way his eyes move around the crowd and so he slaps him on the back again.

“Will, if it’s meant to be, it will be. Remember Hernando was hard to find too.”

Except, Lito and Hernando now live together and are happy and will be together forever, probably.  It’s actually a little bit disgusting. Will just has a few encounters with the most stunning girl he’s ever met.

Nomi comes over and tries to drag them over to the dance floor, but they decline, laughing at the way she teeters back to Amanita.

He’s content to just sit back and watch for now, just to make sure she’s not here, and then he can go join his friends.

He starts to ask Lito why Hernando couldn’t make it out – and he feels the tap on his shoulder.

He spins around on the stool quickly and nearly knocks his beer off the table, because she’s standing in front of him. He can’t believe it.

“Are you stalking me?” She yells playfully over the music, arching one eyebrow. Her smile is blinding.

She’s wearing a low cut black dress and has her blue headphones around her neck and she’s real, she’s breath-taking, he’s tongue tied.

“I – uh, - I -” He desperately looks to Lito.

“Hello, I am Lito. This is Will, sorry he’s not very good at talking.” Lito chimes in, holding his hand out to the girl.

“Riley,” she replies, tilting her chin in a nod as she takes his hand. She’s still looking at Will though. Her name is Riley, and it’s perfect, and she’s still looking at him. Will’s so attracted to her it’s not funny.

“You on your break?” He manages to ask, once Lito has let go of her hand.

Lito also happens at that very moment to see Nomi gesturing for him to dance so he makes his excuses, winking at Will over Riley’s head as she moves to occupy his seat.

“No I actually just finished my set, but I’m meeting some friends here soon. Wolfgang, Kala and Capheus actually.” She admits, waving to the bar tender for a drink.

There’s silence as they just stare at each other for a while, but it’s comfortable. Like they’ve been doing it for years.

“I take it you’re not on duty tonight then?” She asks once she’s had a sip of her drink.

He shakes his head.

She grins. “I’ll try not to get in trouble then, since you won’t be arresting me.”

Will chuckles back and looks down at his bottle, spinning it around with his hand.

They’re quiet for a little while and then she leans into him. It’s intoxicating, feeling her breath on his ear and her perfume surrounding him. She grips his elbow too, and a piece of her hair brushes his nose. He never wants to move.

“Let’s go dance.”

Okay, he doesn’t mind moving.

He follows her through the dance floor until she finds a space near his friends, which would be embarrassing enough if it were any other girl, but Will is sure they’ve probably all been informed that this girl, Riley, god her name suits her perfectly, is the girl he had to fish out of the fountain.

At first he’s not quite sure what he’s meant to do with any part of his body, and then Riley has grabbed his hands and laced her fingers through them and has tugged him closer. He’s engulfed in a heady mix of perfume and the alcohol on her breath.

“Relax,” she murmurs in his ear, lips brushing the shell, quiet enough that only he can hear, “we’re just dancing.”

He nods, breathing in her scent again.

And so they begin to move. It’s not dirty, not at first, it’s just intimate. He can’t get over the way she throws her head back and lifts their arms up, bopping as the bass and the beat increases. Will is sure he’s embarrassing himself, but she doesn’t seem to mind.

Will can’t take it anymore, has to touch her, so he detangles their hands and tentatively places them on her waist. At the risk of sounding cliché, he can’t actually believe how perfectly they seem to hold her, like they were made to hold her and he really needs to get such sappy thoughts out of his head – especially when she adjusts them and then wraps her arms around his neck.

“Good, you’re getting the hang of it.” She winks.

They begin to move again, and this time he can feel her hips moving, the way her body undulates with the beat. It’s driving him crazy, the easy way she moves, her eyes boring into his own. His grip tightens and he studies her as the lights dance across the room, the reds and blues lighting up her face at different times, the way it catches on her hair and the skin at the base of her throat.

She’s in her element, letting the music reverberate through her body and soul and he really needs to get himself under control otherwise he’s going to have another problem entirely.

Except that’s really fucking hard to avoid when she’s twirling around in his grip and is then pressed up against him – moulded to his body and grabbing his hands to tighten his grip on her. She rests her head back on his shoulder and turns her head so he can look down and see all of her – he’s sure she can feel how she’s affecting him. His breath washes along her throat and he swears he sees her swallow as she closes her eyes and presses closer. Seeing her body was one thing, but feeling it is very much another and Will is sure he’s died and gone to heaven.

As the beat increases so does the speed of their movements, sending a jolt through him with every movement. His breathing gets shorter and with every move of her hips against his and the tightening of his hands she lets out a small gasp, arching her back into him more, biting her lip and – and Will is sure he’s going to nut in the middle of the dance floor when she stills, looks at something and steps away. He’s also sure that he’s probably left bruises from gripping her hips so hard, but she doesn’t seem to have been in any pain.

He aches – both physically and mentally – with her absence and it feels as though his heart is straining out of his chest to get back to her, but he needs to control himself.

He’s obviously had just as big an effect on her as she has on him because she can’t look away from him and her breathing is shallow – plus she hasn’t made too much of a move away, he can still feel her pressed against him lightly.

“I’m sorry, I have to go – my friends.” She manages to get out, gesturing behind her, and she sounds sincere, and he politely nods, shoving his hands into his pockets and desperately hoping she can’t see the boner he’s sporting.

“Maybe I’ll see you around?” She adds, tiptoeing up to kiss him on the cheek before pulling away again.

He watches her go through the crowd until she reaches a large group of people and is enveloped into a hug, and he resolves to find her again soon.

.

It doesn’t take long – he’s in the supermarket the next Wednesday afternoon just come off shift and she’s standing in the checkout in front of him.

“Hey,” he leans forward and says into her ear.

Okay, he probably shouldn’t laugh at her jump, or the way she clutches her heart and squeezes her eyelids closed for a second. He laughs though, and then she’s shoved his chest and mock glared at him.

“That wasn’t funny,” Riley grumbles.

His smile grows wider.

“Except, it kinda was.” He points out, leaning down a little because she’s too damn far away.

She just smirks.

“I guess I’ll forgive you, especially since you’re in uniform.”

He feels his eyebrows rise. She likes the uniform?

Before he can respond though, they’re at the checkout and the young guy who is serving them has distracted her. She flicks him an apologetic look and then she’s gone, out the store without so much as a goodbye.

Goddamn checkout operators.

.

Kala stops by his desk two days later and just arches her eyebrow.

“You were dirty dancing with her and you didn’t even give her your number? And then you saw her at the supermarket and didn’t give it to her then?!!” She asks exasperatedly, crossing her arms.

Will groans and starts banging his head on the desk, because he _knows_ how stupid it was.

“Don’t do that, we need to preserve some of your few brain cells.” She says.

Will just groans again.

“It was some intense dancing.” Wolfgang’s voice chimes in, and Will looks up to see him resting against the door frame laughing at Will’s obvious distress.

“She didn’t give me her number!” He protests.

Kala rolls her eyes. “You were the one with the boner, you’re meant to have balls, give it to her the next time you see her or I will get Sun to come and fight you.”

Who the fuck is Sun?

Wolfgang sees his confusion and clears it up, “She’s our other flatmate. Very into martial arts, very good at them, Korean, you don’t want to be on her bad side.”

.

As if the universe couldn’t be crueler, the next week he has to pop around to Capheus’ shop to sort out some paperwork and Riley is there in the office.

“Will! What can I do for you today?” Capheus greets him, wiping his hands on a rag and smiling his trademark wide grin.

“I’m just here with the cheque we owed you.”

Riley gives Will a dorky wave through the office window and he smiles and waves back.

He’s gonna do it. He’s gonna give her his number.

“Will, my friend, you need to hurry up and sort yourself out.” Capheus says.

Will glances back to where Riley is swirling around on the chair, eyes darting back to him every so often.

“She’s not going to wait forever.” Capheus adds.

Will pulls out one of his police cards and hands it over to Capheus.

“You can give her this then.”

He’s ridiculous, he could have given it to Riley himself, but this feels right. Now she can decide if she actually wants anything to do with him.

.

Riley calls him three hours later.

 “Gorski,” he answers, glancing at Diego as they drive back to the station from a job.

“Don’t you know it’s rude to give someone your number through someone else and then leave abruptly?” She replies, her voice lilting and playful.

He looks away from Diego, out the window. He bites his bottom lip as he thinks how to answer.

“I had to keep the city safe, be a hero, all that jazz. I didn’t have time to be distracted by a lovely lady like yourself.”

He can practically hear Diego roll his eyes.

She scoffs.

“You need to get back to work then, Officer Gorski.”

He grins and clutches his phone tighter. “Don’t get any ideas about getting into any trouble – I’m only on till 10.”

She hums darkly and it sends a shiver up his spine.

“I’ll wait till tomorrow then.”

He hangs up with a smirk, made greater when he sees Diego looking at him in surprise as he obviously could have heard what Riley was saying through the phone.

“ _Damn_.”

Will has to agree.

.

She rings him the next day too – he’s in the middle of telling someone their rights and his phone goes off. He knows it’s her before he’s even looked at his phone somehow, but he lets it ring through to voicemail so he can do his job.

He rings her back as soon as they’re in the car

“Hello, officer.” She answers.

“Hi.”

She’s shy today. “Are you busy? Did I interrupt you doing something important?”

“Just arresting someone, but it’s okay, I’m done. What’s up?”

She pauses for a second, and he likes to imagine that if she had an old home phone she’d be twirling the cord around her finger.

“It’s funny you know Capheus and Kala and Wolfgang.” She says.

He hums in agreement. “Maybe we should get everyone together, since we all know each other.”

There’s silence for a little while and then she blows some air out of her nose. “I was bored and I was thinking about you, I guess, is why I called.”

His heart stutters. She was thinking about him.

“Are you alright?” He asks.

He senses the shrug. “Sometimes.”

.

They get into a routine of texting every so often, sometimes calling when they’re impatient and haven’t spoken in a while.

Normally they’ll talk as she’s waiting for a friend or walking around the supermarket absently. Will calls her whenever he gets off a particularly hard shift because she has a way of getting him to think about the positives of the job, not the gangs and the deaths and all the people who get hurt over the city, and it works because of her so-called ‘DJ hours’.

He learns she’s from Iceland, living with four friends (Sun, Capheus, Kala and Wolfgang) in her crappy apartment and looking into going to college finally for sound engineering or mixing.

It’s actually really nice, having someone to talk to and laugh with about stupid things.

Sometimes they’ll watch a movie at the same time, and Will lives for her ridiculous commentary about everything that is wrong or absurd with the plot or the characters. Usually she puts the phone on speaker and Capheus, Kala and Wolfgang chime in occasionally. He even hears from the mysterious Sun sometimes – who shares his derision of most action movie fight scenes.

.

One night when neither of them are working they go out to a bar with their friends and Riley spends most of the night being piggy backed by Will as they make their way from place to place.

Kala and Wolfgang twirl together in the middle of the street, stopping only so often so Wolfgang can sneak in a kiss when they think no one is looking.

Lito and Sun get terribly drunk together and end up having an emotional conversation in the corner of McDonald’s while they wait for Nomi to pee – Lito leaves early to see Hernando, because he claims he has not seen him in over 13 hours, and that is unacceptable to him. Capheus spends the night telling everyone how glad he is to have met them all, how lucky he is to have moved to America with his mother when he was little, how important it is to love.

At this statement Will feels Riley’s nose press into his neck and he turns his head to look at her, smiling when she tweaks his nose.

.

Riley seems to enjoy sabotaging his work too. She starts coming to the station with lunch or dinner every so often for his breaks, sometimes with Kala – Will particularly enjoys seeing the secretaries at the front desk scandalised by this apparent rebel girl standing in the station’s reception wearing black or ripped tights, inappropriate tops and with her dark makeup and bleached hair – especially the first time they learn she’s here to see William Gorski of all people.

They’ll eat in the park around the corner if the weather’s nice, or he’ll bring her up to the break room where they do the crosswords in the paper together and have a race to finish the sudoku. Sometimes Wolfgang joins them and they debate the merits of living in America versus living in Europe. Both Wolfgang and Riley long for home – but Wolfgang won’t leave Kala, and Riley tells Will she just can’t go back.

It’s an incredibly domestic routine to get into, but Will wouldn’t mind if this was his life permanently.

Diego manages to notify the whole station of who Will’s visitor is too and within a week he’s been told that his law-breaking girlfriend is downstairs by people he’s not even in a section with – it’s ridiculous how quickly gossip spreads through the station.

Wolfgang corners him in the bathrooms one day after this rumour breaks out and even though he knows they’re not an item warns him that if he hurts her or doesn’t get his act together, he will sic his dogs onto Will and Will knows it is definitely a threat he will follow through on.

Now it’s all about working the nerves up to ask her out.

.

He’s woken up a week later by his phone ringing and it’s – jesus christ it’s two in the morning, who the fuck is ringing him? His thoughts fly to Riley, but she’d be working and would have turned her phone off surely.

“Hello?”

He’s groggy and disorientated, but he still makes out the voice at the other end.

“Will, your girl is swimming naked again in the fountain.” Diego’s voice is loud and bright, and seriously screw the Chicago PD for splitting them up because they caused too much of a ruckus at the station.

So okay, now he’s awake. Why is Riley swimming in the fountain, is she okay, why didn’t she call him if she’s not okay – “What the fuck, Diego?”

“Gorski, I am not gonna say it again. Get the fuck down here, I’m –“

He hears giggling at the other end and then Riley’s voice is flooding the speaker.

“Will? Where are you? I wanted to see you but only your partner showed up and I’m a little bit drunk but can I come and visit you?”

Jesus what is going on? He scrubs his face with his hand and tries to rub the tiredness out of his eyes.

There seems to be some sort of scuffle on the other end and then Diego’s back.

“Will, I’m bringing her to yours, I’ll be there in ten. Get some clothes for her please, I swear she’s probably got hypothermia.

Shit, his place is a mess.

He grabs a tank top and runs around frantically for the next five minutes, cleaning bottles up and clearing the dishes from his table. He manages to get his kitchen and lounge in order – not that there’s much space to get into order in the first place – and then there’s a knocking on the door.

Diego is standing outside, looking very much done with the night, and Riley is with him, her hand clutching her towel tightly. She looks both giddy and nervous at the same time, which is incidentally how Will is feeling too.

“Hey,” he says lowly, enjoying the way she smiles as she looks at him.

“Good night, Will.” Diego says, nodding his head and handing him a bunch of Riley’s things. As he leaves he calls out, “I’ve got a city to protect!”

Will opens his door wider and gestures for her to come in, stepping back just far enough that she has to brush past him.

She’s shivering, he notices as she looks around the place, trailing her hand over the kitchen bench before turning around to face him.

“Do you want a shower or something? I can even run a bath?”

Boy is he glad he managed to find an apartment with a shower over the bath when her face lights up.

“I’d like that.” She says quietly, following as he moves towards the bathroom.

It’s almost awkward, how quiet she is. Maybe she only said that stuff because she was drunk and now she’s regretting it.

“Wolfgang dared me to do it.” She blurts out.

Will looks up at her from where he’s adjusting the tap.

She’s biting her lip. “Wolfgang, Capheus and Sun told me I had to if I wasn’t going to call you and talk to you about anything important. I was meant to ring you once I was there but I got in and chickened out because we’re _friends_ and I didn’t want to make it awkward and, and then it was your partner and they were still across the street so I had to say that stuff I’m – “

Will stops her. He doesn’t want to think about the implications of her words, the way she blushed and looked at her toes as she spoke. “Hey, it’s fine. Don’t worry about it, you can take the bed, I’ll sleep on the couch, you did what your friends wanted you to do. It’s fine. I’ll just beat Wolfgang up the next time I’m in at work, even though he’ll probably beat me instead.”

Except, it’s really not fine. They’ve been building up to this weird crescendo which hasn’t ever been hit yet and he thinks this was Wolfgang’s way of getting him to finally do something about it. It’s hard to try and convince himself that they should just say friends though, when all he wants to do is run a finger down her cheek and kiss her right here in his bathroom.

He abruptly leaves the room because he is not ruining a friendship, not because he can’t keep it in his pants and goes into the lounge, gripping the table tightly. He’s surprised to find her follow him, is surprised when she traces the back of his hand lightly.

He turns to her and watches the way she still trembles. Hesitantly he reaches out to her right arm, brushes it, moves up and brushes a piece of hair from her face.

She swallows, eyes studying his own. She inhales –

He’s grabbed her face before she can say anything, is pressing his lips to hers within a second. She gasps and reaches up to his jaw, tracing a path down to the back of his neck and bringing him closer to her. Her lips are soft and warm and just so _right_.

He pulls away after a few seconds and rests his forehead against her own, gulping down the words he wants to say, the feelings he needs to blurt out. She licks her lips and presses up on her tiptoes to kiss him again, this time bringing both hands up to his face.

He moans as he feels the towel fall to the ground and she presses herself against him, and dammit his arms are still around her. Her bare skin is smooth and still so cold from the fountain and he can feel every part of her through his shirt.

Fucking hell.

“Why did we wait so long to do this?” He breathes as they break for some air.

And then she’s kissing him slowly, agonisingly, so every time she moves away he lets out a little whimper and searches for her lips again, noses bumping. She smiles into his mouth and he hits teeth – it’s not particularly glamorous but they make it work and it’s everything he could have dreamed of, especially when he runs his tongue along her lip and she lets him in. God, he really can’t get enough of her.

All too soon he remembers he’s running her a bath.

“Riley, you’ve got a bath to have.”

She just holds his head tighter and kisses him again – once, twice, three times quickly before pulling away and slowly opening her eyes.

She nods and bends down to pick up the towel, although there’s not really much point anymore.

He makes his way to the bathroom and turns the taps off, giving the water a swish to make sure she isn’t going to burn herself.

He should really leave her to it.

“I’ll – uh – I’ll be in the lounge once you’re done.” He turns around, not before slowly stroking her cheek and tucking her hair behind her ears.

“Wait.” She says quietly.

He doesn’t dare to move, doesn’t dare to breathe. He faces the door and clenches his jaw, feeling her feather light touch on his shoulder.

“You can stay, if you want.”

He turns around at that, staring into her eyes to make sure this is what she really wants. He sees no hesitation so he nods mutely.

She watches as he pulls his shirt over his head, coming closer so she can reach a hand out and lightly trace his muscles. Riley looks up at him and blushes under the heat of his gaze, smiling gently as she drops her towel.

This time, he’s allowed to look. He’s allowed to stroke the soft skin of her ribs, tracing up and up until she lets out a short breath and he’s kissing her again. He can still feel goosebumps on her skin.

He helps her into the bath and hurriedly divests himself of his shorts and underwear before stepping in behind her, hissing at the temperature of the water, and sliding down so she can rest her head against his shoulder and fit against his chest.

“This is cosy.” She teases, and he lets out a sigh of relief when she grabs his arms and allows them to fall around her waist. He starts absentmindedly drawing patterns along the sides of her thighs as she rests her own hands on his knees.

It’s nice, being able to relax and feel her against him, feel her skin with every rise and fall of his chest against her back. He particularly likes whispering into her ear and feeling her shiver at his breath, kissing down her neck and then bringing his hands back to hers to link them together.

“I really fucking like you.” He says to her.

“I liked you as soon as you hopped in that fountain to pull me out and your ears went red as you tried not to look at me.” She replies, humming contently when he kisses the top of her shoulder again.

They’re both idiots for waiting so long.

.

When they get out Riley finds her phone in the bundle of things Diego handed Will, and she opens up her Snapchat. Will comes up behind her and wraps his arms around her waist, resting his head on her shoulder. She takes a quick selfie, captions it ‘you all win’ and sends it to all of their friends.

Will proudly thinks that actually, he’s won.

He gives her one of his t-shirts and a pair of shorts to wear to bed and they slide into his bed warm and giddy with happiness. It’s already 3.30 am and he has to be up at 6, but it’s definitely worth it when she stretches out against his sheets and he lies on his stomach, head facing her and arm wrapped around her waist. She nuzzles into his shoulder and places a kiss there before humming as he tangles his ankles with hers. He breathes a sigh of relief as she snuggles impossibly closer.

“Diego is never going to let me live this down,” he murmurs into her hair, feeling her laugh against his chest.

She tilts her head up to look at him and he presses a kiss onto her nose before she closes her eyes and strokes his lip with her forefinger.

“Go to sleep, Will.” She whispers – and he does.

It’s the best two and a half hours sleep he’s ever had.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sleep deprived I don't know if this is good, but someone come and flail about sense8 with me at willsgorskii.tumblr.com


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